Volcanoes have been around on earth since the very beginning of earth's long, 4.5 billion year history. When it comes to extremes in nature, there's not much else that compares to the violent eruption of the blood and guts of the earth that is a volcano. With enough destructive force to level mountains, or build new ones, volcanoes are the undisputed champions of the extreme forces of nature.

In a cinder cone, lava erupts from a small vent in the crust and 'sprays' melted rock fragments into the air where they then fall back to earth in a pile. These rock fragments are glassy, gas-filled chunks of lava... Read more

Some of the most powerful and destructive volcanoes in human history have been stratovolcanoes. They can send cubic miles of rock and ash into the atmosphere in an extremely violent series of eruptions known as a plinian-type eruption....Read more

The initial eruption of 2.1 million years ago was 2,500 times more powerful than the Mt. St. Helens eruption and perhaps was the largest, most violent volcanic eruption in the history of earth. Enough ash and volcanic debris exploded from the eruptions to cover...Read more